The History of Luke 9:2 Ministries

Our current ministry efforts to provide medical care, clean water, and pastoral training to underserved populations in Central America began at Crievewood Baptist Church in 2001 where a group of interested church members from this small church in Nashville, Tennessee felt called to offer basic medical and dental care to the people of Honduras.Following a successful pilot trip, church members and affiliates continued to send teams of health professionals and laypersons to Central America in order to provide medical care, evangelism, and education to the people of Honduras as well as to build long-term relationships to ensure continuity of care.After partnering with a local physician and local churches, what began as an annual week-long short term medical mission trip has now evolved into year-round provision of excellent medical care and education to the communities outside of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

In 2009, our expanding group of providers and supporters elected to form a non-profit called Luke 9:2 Ministries in order to provide continuous care for underserved populations through financial and prayer support. Over the last few years our organization has provided salary support, financial assistance and medications to our local Tegucigalpa-based physician in order to equip him to provide acute care and chronic disease management to underserved communities outside the capital city. Additionally, our annual medical/dental short-term trip has expanded to twice yearly opportunities in order to support our local physician as well as to engage professional and layperson volunteers in the ministry’s efforts. Teams prepare for each trip by collecting and packing donated medications, eyeglasses and medical supplies. During each week-long trip, patients are evaluated by trained medical and dental professionals and medications, eyeglasses and education are provided to these patients free of any charge. In addition, team members partner with local church leaders in order to share our faith-based purposes for being there and to share the Gospel with any interested patient. During a typical week of mission service, the team will evaluate over 2000 patients, extract 700 teeth, provide 600 eyeglasses, and dispense over 10,000 medications.

In 2013, our Ministry extended efforts to improve the health of the communities we served by providing safe, clean drinking water. Volunteers with Luke 9:2 Ministries installed a clean-water chlorination and filtration system purchased from WaterStep International and trained local Hondurans to operate and maintain the system. Over the last few years, our volunteers have successfully installed thirteen filtration systems in rural communities and have monitored the continued maintenance and safety of previously installed systems. Inclusion of health-and-hygiene classes to local children as well as empowering local laypersons to operate and maintain the water filters has engaged entire communities in health promotion and, notably, our local physician has noted a significant drop in water-related diarrheal illness and other health concerns.

Finally, in 2015 Luke 9:2 Ministries further expanded our evangelist efforts by initiating a three-year pastoral training program created for rural-based pastors in Honduras. Overseen by Dr. Larry McCullough who holds a doctorate in theological education, volunteer educators teach quarterly 3-day seminars that enable participants to earn a Diploma in Practical Theology. Our program seeks to “train the trainer” by equipping a small group of pastors with the education and materials who will then, in turn, train other local pastors seeking to expand their theological knowledge and spiritual foundation. Our Ministry covers the costs of the training materials as well as the expenses of the participating pastors as well as the volunteer educators.

Luke 9:2 Ministries continues to seek opportunities to work with local pastors and medical providers to offer quality medical/dental care, health and hygiene education, clean water filtration systems, and discipleship training to the underserved communities of Honduras. As our efforts continue to expand, so does our need to recruit both professionals and laypersons to carry out the work of the Ministry. We are seeking faith-based volunteer professionals and laypersons to help us continue the good work being done in Honduras to proclaim Christ’s love, heal the sick, and empower the local community to prevent disease and preserve community well-being.